when I turn the temp up to 83 and drive around for 30 minutes the cabin is still not hot, in my old car 94 SSE it would be unbearbly hot. What would cause the car not to throw out hot heat? should I try to drain and refill the coolant?

on my 00, there is a drastic difference between having the temp at 85° and 90°. Try turning it up all the way first. Otherwise, you might have some air trapped in your coolant.

had coolant flushed by previous owner last November and only driven 8k since then. It notes on the service invoice to replace cabin filter. Temp is solid at 190-200 degress coolant is full and nice and red/orangish. it gets warm just not hot.

Should be getting hot when you bring the temp up to 90. Try feeling the heater hose inlet to the heater core first to see if its hot.
Otherwise it could be a plugged core or air mix door out of adjustment.

agreed with Haro....83* on my 03 is not hot. Crank that baby all the way up to 90* if it still is cold then there is a problem

I've wondered that myself. On the '96 Cutlass I had as well as our Mountaineer the comfort zone for the heat is 73-74. but on the Bonneville, I pretty much need it at more like 80 once it'* warmed up.